Pronunciations (3)
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/ˈwɪŋkə/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈwɪŋkəɹ/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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ˈwɪŋkə(r)
Noun
A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”).
A person or an animal that winks (“blinks with one eye; blinks with one eye as a message, signal, or suggestion, usually with an implication of conspiracy”). A person who connives with another; a conniver.
- Examples
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He [Joshua] vvas the pattern of a true Judge, he vvas no gift-taker, he vvas no vvinker, he vvas no by-vvalker.
More examples (4)
And so may we iudge of these wilye winkers in Religion, that either they be blindstockes in deede and lacke the light of that Heauenlye wysedome, which they pretende to haue, or els their wicked wysedome is but a cloake of wickednes […]
[O]ftymes, men are, of neceſſitie, forced to ſpeak the more amply even of plaine matters: as offering them not ſo much to the vievv of men vvho ſee, but even, in a ſort, to bee handled by groapers and vvinkers.
VVe have, it ſeems, a great Turk in poetry, vvho can never bear a brother on the throne; and has his mutes too, a ſett of nodders, vvinkers, and vvhiſperers, vvhoſe buſineſs is to ſtrangle all other offsprings of vvit in their birth.
The witch saw at once that there was some secret understanding between him and her that she did not understand. Her magic escapades often left her in this position. However, she winked back hopefully. But she was not a skilled winker. Everybody—even the Dog David—saw her doing it, […]
A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Synonym of turn signal (“each of the flashing lights on each side of a vehicle which is used to indicate that the vehicle is moving left or right”); a blinker, an indicator.
Usage- Informal
A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. Synonym of blinker (“a shield attached to the bridle of a horse or other domesticated animal to prevent it from seeing things behind it and to its side”).
Usage- also
- attributive
- Figurative
- in-plural
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (1)
[T]his Censurer slaundereth manie men, another might say of him, he is the cōmon packhorse of the Papistes, to carrie any fardell of lyes deuised against any Christian man or booke that commeth in his way, and the rather because he weareth a paire of winkers ouer his eyes like a milhorse, being ashamed to shewe either his face or his name.
Take the winkers off that donkey's face, and let him get a bit to eat; there's grass enough, God knows, and it's good grass.
The collar of his cambric shirt, English fashion, is highly starched and looks like winkers, its points projecting upward in front with a wide gap between.
A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. A small bellows in an organ, regulated by a spring, which controls variations of wind pressure.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Where the wind-trunk is short between the reservoir and wind-chests the tone will be steady; but when it is long, and with bends, the elasticity of the air causes an unsteadiness in the tone, which must be obviated by the use of concussion-bellows, sometimes called "winkers," or by an elastic diaphragm.
A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. The nictitating membrane (“transparent protective fold of skin acting as an inner eyelid”) of a birds's eye.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
There is a third inner eyelid, highly developed and of beautiful mechanism: this is the nictitating membrane, or "winker" (nictito, I wink), a delicate, elastic, translucent, pearly-white fold of the conjunctiva. While the other lids move vertically and have a horizontal commissure, the winker sweeps horizontally or obliquely across the ball, from the side next the beak to the opposite.
A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. An eye.
Usage- UK usage
- dialectal
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (2)
[H]e has shell'd out the lour for the occasion, and is travelling down to keep a wakeful winker on his retailers, and to take care that however they may chuse to lush away the profit, they shall at least take care of the principal. [Footnote ǁ: “Wakeful winker—A sharp eye.”]
With keener stare / The man's eyes scanned him, with the flare / Of yellow light full on his face, / As though his memory sought to trace / Something familiar in the lean / Clearcut young features and the clean / Blue winkers: then his own hard eyes / Twinkled, […]
A thing which is used to wink with, or which winks. An eyelash.
Usage- UK usage
- US usage
- dialectal
- Slang
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (2)
We're like father and Aunt Nina, hanging on the wall in the library. Mother's got big black eyes, with winkers a rod long, and her hair shines like my velvet coat, and comes most to her feet.
I had fallen down on my knees, with my back to the wind, and already the snow had drifted around me. I also found my eye-lashes frozen together, and I lost several winkers in getting rid of those solidified tears.
His eyebrows are gone and his winkers, and he’s as red as a gobbler’s neck.
Noun
a person who winks
blind consisting of a leather eyepatch sewn to the side of the halter that prevents a horse from seeing something on either side